Meteorologist Dani Beckstrom of the Fox 4 station in Fort Myers, Florida said that she was heartbroken on Sunday after realizing during the broadcast just how devastating Hurricane Irma’s storm surge would be to her viewing area.

“It really breaks my heart but we are really looking at Sanibel [island] being completely under water,” Beckstrom said as she pointed to the ominous doppler image. “It’s going to push that wall of water over the entire island.”

The meteorologist pointed out that the 9 ft. storm surge in Sanibel will completely fill the first floor of almost all homes on the island.

She went on to say that Matlacha, Florida is also looking at a 9 ft. surge.

“That just breaks my heart,” she lamented.

But it was impact on Cape Coral that really took the weather forecaster aback.

“We’re going to see storm surge as far north as Pine Island Rd.,” she reported. “That’s incredible to me.”

“This is unbelievable,” Beckstrom gasped. “As I’m saying this I’m realizing what it means. Think about how many homes are south of Veterans Parkway. So, so many.”

About the Author

David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. His work can also be found at Crooks & Liars, and he's also been published at The BRAD BLOG. He came to Raw Story after working as a network manager for the state of North Carolina and as as engineer developing enterprise resource planning software. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidEdwards.